
ciass LJLLiAIilA. 



Author. 



Title 



Imprint 



1»— 30299-1 «PO 



A PLEA 



FOB 



LIBERAL CULTURE. 



By JOSIAH PARSONS COOKE. 



A PLEA 



FOR 



LIBERAL CULTURE 



BY 



JOSIAH PARSONS COOKE. 



CAMBRIDGE: 

JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

« 

SSnibersttg iPrcss. 

1890. 



L»Gioi\ 
•Gu 






MEMORIAL. 1 



IT is with great regret that 1 find myself obliged to 
dissent from the opinion of a majority of my col- 
leagues with regard to the shortening of the under- 
graduate course of this College, and that I must regard 
the measures which have already been taken in this 
direction as of far more serious import than they are 
apparently regarded by most of those with whom I 
am associated. It is only my earnest conviction that 
those measures are fraught with great peril to the 
cause of liberal culture in this community which leads 
me, in opposition to a majority vote of the College 
Faculty, to urge the Board — with whom the final de- 
cision now rests — to prevent their consummation. I 
feel that the character of this community has been to 

1 To the Board of Overseers of Harvard College, in accord- 
ance with their vote requesting any member of the minority to 
present his reasons for opposing the plan of the College Faculty 
for the reduction of the College course, a plan which was adopted 
in March, 1890. 



a large extent moulded by the liberal culture of the 
College, and is constantly sustained by the associa- 
tions which cluster round college life, and that any 
measures which tend to impair this culture or weaken 
college class associations will cause irreparable injury 
not only to the College, but also to the community 
and to the nation. 

As it seems to me, through the influence of the elec- 
tive system we have been gradually drifting into a 
dangerous position, which recent action has only more 
clearly defined, in changing the basis of our first de- 
gree in arts from a period of residence to a number of 
courses of study. All this tends to give to our college 
course the tone of an educational mill, rather than of 
a studious retreat. It tends to substitute for the in- 
fluence of lofty associations and refined intercourse 
the feverish acquisition of a definite amount of know- 
ledge in the shortest time. It tends to replace the 
contemplative life of the scholar by the restless rivalry 
of the market ; and is, in my view, a yielding of the 
great purposes for which universities were founded to 
the commercial spirit of the age. 

Believing, as I do, that a prolonged period of quiet 
study guarded from the restlessness of active life is 
not only an inestimable privilege to our young men, 
but also of the greatest value to the active community 



which they are soon to direct, I look with extreme 
jealousy on any measures which tend to shorten this 
period or impair its influence. The difference between 
sixteen and eighteen courses may be of small im- 
portance ; but the difference between four years of 
quiet study and three years of busy acquisition of 
technical knowledge is world-wide. 

Liberal education is not merely a question of ac- 
quisition, but much more a question of growth ; and 
the acquisition is chiefly of value in so far as it directs 
and stimulates the growth ; nor is it growth in know- 
ledge merely, but growth in all the attributes of the 
highest manhood. Harvard College cannot compete 
with masters who teach any language in twelve easy 
lessons ; but if we do our duty, our College can be 
made the field in which growth in character, as well 
as in scholarship, shall be carefully guarded and fos- 
tered. Growth cannot be measured in a number of 
academic courses. It cannot be forced beyond a very 
limited extent. If over-stimulated, it will not be 
healthy; and if our sons are to grow to the full 
measure of educated men, we must not grudge Alma 
Mater the necessary time. 

The value of class associations in extending the in- 
fluence of the College over the subsequent life of its 
graduates is a fact of profound significance. Similar 



associations have been diligently fostered in profes- 
sional and technical schools ; but their influence is 
comparatively feeble ; and the comparison plainly in- 
dicates how great must be the loss if the true spirit of 
liberal culture were replaced by a mere rivalry in the 
acquisition of useful knowledge. Moreover a large 
number of our students never have gained, and never 
can be expected to gain, more than very moderate at- 
tainments in any subject. This very large class of 
college graduates will always be educated more by as- 
sociations and personal influence than by actual study 
of books. They may never be distinguished as schol- 
ars ; but they constantly acquire a high degree of cul- 
ture, and give a tone to the community in which they 
live ; and through them the College wields a very great 
power. To such men the class associations are the 
one fsature of their life among us which they most 
prize, and which really does more for their education 
than all the college exercises combined ; and any 
measures which tend to shorten the term of residence 
or break up class associations will lessen the influence 
of the College on the community. That the measures 
under discussion will have this effect no one can 
question. 

When it is said that the degree should be based on 
residence, it is of course understood that a certain 



minimum attainment must be enforced by examina- 
tions ; and as thus understood residence is the usual 
basis for the first degree in arts in all schools of lib- 
eral culture. That on such a basis degrees may be 
unworthily bestowed is granted, and so they may be 
on any basis on which an institution dependent for 
its support on the good-will of its patrons may be 
governed. Examinations in a certain number of mis- 
cellaneous courses, in regard to. which nothing is fixed 
but the. number, are certainly no adequate safeguards. 
The requisition of residence at least ensures a pro- 
longed association with the forms of learning, and 
thus secures a certain amount of culture. 

But if examinations on a certain number of miscel- 
laneous courses are an unsatisfactory basis for a pass 
degree, they are a still less satisfactory basis for a de- 
gree with honors. No possible standard of comparison 
can be found between courses on the most diverse 
subjects, given by teachers using methods utterly un- 
like, and estimating proficiency in wholly different 
ways. It is notorious that some of our courses de- 
mand of the student more than twice as much time 
and attention as others, and that even the very best 
students when electing a difficult subject often take 
some easy course as what they call " a soft snap," in 
order to gain the necessary time. Under such cir- 



8 

cumstances what definite significance can there be to 
sixteen, eighteen, or any other number of courses as 
the standard for a degree ? 

It is said that the courses may be graded. But how 
are they to be graded ? And who is to grade them ? 
How is a course which involves chiefly delicate manip- 
ulation or careful observation to be compared with 
those courses which imply critical acumen, profound 
research, or deep thought? Is the Faculty to grade 
them, consisting, as it does for the most part, of men 
each engrossed in special studies, and naturally attach- 
ing great value to the peculiar form of discipline which 
has attracted him ? The more it is considered, the 
more impracticable will the iflea of grading be found 
to be ; and it will be seen that the inequalities must 
be accepted as a necessary result of an elective sys- 
tem. With a prescribed period of residence the evil 
is not serious. Good scholars take pride in electing 
the hard courses ; and the soft courses serve to lubri- 
cate the running gear of our system. But abandon the 
requisition of residence, and put a premium on secur- 
ing the degree in the shortest possible time, and it 
will be easy to foresee the fate of the hard courses 
which reflect honor on the scholarship of the College. 

In classing a course as soft or hard we by no means 
prejudge its educational value. . It is the great virtue 



of our elective system that it cultivates the power of 
observation of the naturalist and the manipulation of 
the experimenter, as well as the critical skill of the 
linguist or the introspection of the mental philosopher ; 
but the only common ground on which all scholars of 
whatever name may meet is a true university, which 
after an adequate preparation prescribes only the faith- 
ful and successful use of a definite term of residence, 
attested by examinations or otherwise, as the condition 
of its honorable recognition. 

But granting the importance of a prescribed term of 
residence, why are not three years sufficient, as in 
English and Continental universities ? 

First, because for our pass men the conventional four 
years of our American colleges are all fully needed to 
gain that knowledge, experience, and self-control, to 
acquire those literary or scientific tastes, to become im- 
bued with those large ideas and noble motives, to form 
those scholarly associations and to cement those friend- 
ships which are at once the insignia and the pledges of 
liberal culture. This class of men can, as a rule, afford 
all the time demanded, and so far from asking for a 
reduction, appear to be almost unanimously opposed 
to the proposed change. And no wonder; they re- 
gard their college life as a great privilege, and look 
forward with regret to the time when they must go 



10 

forth to the battle of life. Why should we wish to 
shorten these halcyon days ? And where can our sons 
grow into that manhood which will win the battle 
under better and safer conditions than here ? 

Secondly. Four years of residence are required in 
order to secure from our best men that scholarship 
for which the college is now distinguished. That 
scholarship represents the very best attainment which 
school and college together, under present conditions, 
can produce in the prescribed time. The stimulus 
to exertion is already very great, — too great, as some 
of us believe, for the physical well-being of our edu- 
cated class ; and no one who knows our best scholars 
can maintain that they can make any better use of 
their time than they actually do. To lessen that time 
means therefore simply to cut short that scholarship ; 
and — what is worse — to cut it off as it is approach- 
ing fruition. 

There are among the minority of the faculty those 
who have been long and earnestly laboring for the 
advancement of the scholarship in their departments ; 
and can they look on with indifference when by a 
small majority vote the slow growth of a quarter of 
a century is suddenly lopped off before their eyes ? 

The practice of the English universities, so often 
cited, is no precedent for us, since the cases are not 



11 



in the least degree parallel. At both Oxford and 
Cambridge higher scholarship is undoubtedly reached 
than with us, although only on very narrow lines. 
But, as every one knows, the competition for the 
great prizes at the English universities begins long 
before the men go into residence ; so that the upper 
forms of the great public schools must be regarded 
as an integral part of the college life ; and, if meas- 
ured by the time devoted to competitive work, their 
full course of liberal culture is even longer than here. 
Moreover, it is becoming more and more the custom 
for the honor men not to go up for the final exami- 
nations until after four years of residence at the 
university. 

In former years it was the custom of the Phillips 
Academy at Exeter to enter their candidates to our 
Sophomore year ; and the practice had no bad effect 
on our scholarship, for the same obvious reason that 
a corresponding rule has no bad effect in England. 
If we could push back our Freshman year into the 
preparatory schools, we might possibly reduce our 
term of residence to three years, without endanger- 
ing our scholarship. But this cannot be done ; and 
if it could be done, the age of graduation would not 
thereby be reduced, nor the demand of the Medical 
Faculty satisfied. The practice is possible in England 



12 

simply because the competition for scholarship takes 
place along narrow lines of study, which can be fol- 
lowed as effectively at the school as at the college. 
It was possible with us on the old required system ; 
but as soon as our courses were multiplied on an 
elective system, Exeter was obliged to give up its 
former practice. No school can be expected to have 
the means of carrying forward all the courses of our 
Freshman year. If they had the means, there is no 
reason why they should not go further, and develop 
into colleges themselves. In many of our depart- 
ments the education given in our Freshman year can 
only be provided by a well-endowed college. This 
education is the necessary basis of future scholarship ; 
and for the reasons already stated, such scholarship 
as we now attain cannot be matured in less than four 
years. To diminish the period must then, as we have 
claimed, have the effect of cutting off our scholarship 
just before fruition. 

The practice of Continental universities has been 
cited in favor of the radical measure under considera- 
tion ; but these institutions have absolutely nothing 
in common with ours. In European countries the 
only courses of liberal culture at all comparable with 
those of an American college are given in the higher 
schools, in which — although the institutions are 



13 

often called colleges — the pupils are kept under 
strict school discipline, and with which no one ever 
dreams of associating the idea of an Alma Mater. 
After the school the student enters at once on his 
professional studies at the university ; and although 
the so-called philosophical faculty of the German 
university is sometimes compared with an American 
college, it is really as professional and technical in its 
tone and modes of teaching as are the older faculties 
of theology, law, or medicine, which together with the 
first complete a first-class university of the European 
type. It is only the courses of the higher schools 
just mentioned which can be compared with those 
of our colleges ; and they, although permitting none 
of the freedom of intercourse allowed to American 
youths, engross fully as much of the energy of the 
rising generation. 

It is true that the European student usually leaves 
school to enter on his professional studies between 
the ages of eighteen and nineteen, — the same age 
at which Boston boys usually graduated from Har- 
vard fifty years ago. Since then the average age of 
graduation from the college has been greatly ad- 
vanced ; and on this fact has been based in part the 
demand for the shortening of the college course. The 
writer regrets the change as much as any one ; but 



14 

he does not believe that it is a change which the 
college authorities can in any way control. The ad- 
vance has taken place along the whole line of educa- 
tion from the secondary school to the professional 
diploma. It is obviously due to an increase of wealth 
and population in the country, — an increase of wealth 
which enables the patrons of the college to keep their 
sons in pupilage for a longer average time ; and an in- 
crease of population which has increased competition, 
and thus augmented the average age at which a man 
can gain a livelihood in the learned professions. If 
on an average a medical man cannot earn a living by 
his profession before he is thirty years old, there is 
no urgent necessity that he should enter the Medical 
School before he is twenty-three. As we have no 
power to fix the final goal, we cannot shorten the 
course by merely shifting the intermediate stages ; 
and all artificial inducements to enter the profession 
will only intensify the struggle for life which is the 
great cause of the advance of age we are discussing. 
If so, medical education cannot be aided by the ter- 
rible sacrifice of liberal scholarship which is demanded 
in its name. 

Were it important to bring evidence in support 
of the position taken in the last paragraph, we need 
only ask the Board of Overseers to compare the 



15 

present requisitions for admission to Phillips Exeter 
Academy with those for admission to Harvard Col- 
lege half a century ago. The present average age 
of the boys who enter at Exeter is almost the same 
as that of those entering Harvard at that perio'd ; so 
that the world-wide difference in the two sets of requi- 
sitions very fairly represents the average difference 
in the attainments of boys at the same age fifty years 
ago and now. The comparison is most instructive, 
and shows beyond a question that for the loss of time 
in education that has taken place in this 'community 
since 1840 neither the college nor the secondary schools 
are responsible, but solely the schools of primary in- 
struction. If the loss is a real one, it is there and 
there only that the remedy should be applied. But, 
as before said, we do not believe that the remedy is 
within the control of any university boards ; and if 
the community can afford to allow their sons more 
time for growth in manhood, it may seriously be ques- 
tioned whether there has not been a gain in healthy 
vigor worth all the cost. 

There is a large class of American teachers who, 
having received all their higher education in Ger- 
many, are enamored with German methods and modes 
of thought. With them the German university is the 
type to which they would be glad to conform our 



16 

own educational methods. They regard the Ameri- 
can college simply as the fitting-school to their ideal 
Germanized American university, and look forward 
to a near future when this incumbrance can be thrown 
aside, and all college teaching relegated to inferior 
institutions. They look on Harvard College very 
much as we regard the introductory schools which 
form such essential features of most of the colleges 
in our Western States. The prevalence of this idea 
is shown in the recent foundation among us of so- 
called universities either with no undergraduate course 
whatever, or in which this feature is so subordinate 
as almost to escape notice ; and the competition of 
these institutions is unquestionably one of the un- 
derlying motives of the present movement. These 
teachers are perfectly consistent in advocating a re- 
duction of the college course ; for this is a movement 
in the direction they desire, and can have only one 
end, — that of giving up the college course altogether. 
For if the policy which has been inaugurated is car- 
ried to its legitimate conclusion, Harvard College will 
be squeezed out between the professional and the pre- 
paratory schools. We have no issue to make with 
the German system of education. Their gymnasia 
and universities are admirable institutions, adapted 
to the oountry in which they have f grown up, and 



17 

to whose government and modes of life they have be- 
come conformed. But they are essentially not republi- 
can, and never were meant to be nurseries of free 
men or fountains of liberal thought ; and between the 
avowed aims of teachers who wish to Germanize our 
system and the opinion of those who regard the 
American college as the only safeguard of liberal 
culture in this country the difference is wholly 
irreconcilable. 

It is a dictate of ordinary prudence that no im- 
portant part of a complex system which has slowly 
grown into an organic whole, adapted to its envi- 
ronment, should be altered except after the most 
careful consideration and cautious trials. Our Ameri- 
can system of education has grown with the country 
and become adapted to its needs. The parts of this 
system are so intricately interwoven that no one can 
foresee the effect of a serious change. Such changes 
should only be made with the general consent of those 
who have had the largest experience with educational 
problems. Moreover such changes should never be 
made on speculative grounds, but only in answer to 
imperative and wide-spread demands. In the present 
case not only is there no such general demand, but 
the change is urged in behalf of what has been shown 
to be a mere handful of our students. That a change 



18 

which imperils the liberal scholarship of the country 
should depend on a very small majority of the faculty 
of a single college would be a strange anomaly ; and 
it is fortunate that their vote must be revised by a 
board which is closely in touch with the educated 
community that the college serves ; a community in- 
tensely interested in liberal culture and in maintain- 
ing the high standard of scholarship which, through 
the devotion of its teachers, the college has won. 



LECTURE. 1 

ALTHOUGH it is regarded as important to pre- 
serve the integrity of our college terms by hold- 
ing the first exercises at the appointed times, yet the 
attendance at the opening of the college course is ne- 
cessarily so irregular that it does not seem wise to 
take up the thread of a philosophical system like the 
theory of chemistry until the class has been more com- 
pletely organized ; and I therefore propose to occupy 
the time this morning with some general remarks on 
the aims and methods of undergraduate study. Such 
a discussion is the more necessary because our age 
and our country are dominated by a commercial spirit, 
which is wont to undervalue and neglect the great 
privileges that a large university offers and is ex- 
pected to protect. 

You come to college rather than to a technological 
or professional school, for what is called liberal cul- 

1 Delivered to the Freshman Class of Harvard College, at 
Cambridge, Sept. 25, 1890. 



20 

ture ; but although you may have a clear idea of the 
end to be gained by securing the accomplishments, 
the associations, and the credentials of a gentleman 
in the highest sense of that term, yet few of you, I 
suspect, have so far analyzed the conditions as to be 
able to state clearly either in what liberal culture con- 
sists or in what it is distinguished from professional 
or technical training. 

As is often the case with abstract problems, we shall 
best prepare the way for a clear comprehension of the 
subject, and at the same time reach at least some prac- 
tical conclusions, by first considering in what liberal 
culture does not consist, and thus unmasking some 
of the counterfeits which pass under that name ; and 
this we shall accomplish without trespassing on any 
debatable ground, and while confining ourselves to 
considerations which all must admit are just. 

In the first place then, no command of material 
resources, and hence no amount of wealth or of po- 
litical influence, can conceal the want of liberal cul- 
ture. Wealth may give the means and furnish the 
opportunities of attaining liberal culture, but it can- 
not buy it ; and the attempts of wealth to masquer- 
ade in the guise of culture only renders more hideous 
by comparison the gaunt skeleton which the disguise, 
however brilliant, always fails to hide. 



21 

In the second place no amount of professional or 
technical skill constitutes liberal culture; and we need 
not go far to find illustrations of this truth, for 
who has not known men of the highest reputation in 
almost every walk of life whose professional skill only 
made the narrowness of their education and the limi- 
tations of their view the more conspicuous ; and it is 
the men of this class who are most anxious that 
their children should enjoy the advantages of a cul- 
ture which they could not command or failed to 
secure. 

In the third place no degree of scholarship in a 
narrow field can be regarded as liberal culture. To 
the young student, this statement may seem more 
paradoxical than the last, but a short experience 
with life will show that it is none the less true; and 
the tendency to specialization of the present day is 
one of the great dangers with which the spirit of lib- 
eral culture has to contend. I freely admit that the 
tendency of all true scholarship is liberal, and that 
the large-minded scholar who thoroughly explores 
any field of knowledge, however narrow, will be so 
impressed with the grandeur of creative thought in 
all its modes of manifestation, whether in mind or 
matter, that he cannot fail to gain those larger views 
of life, and those nobler aims in conduct, in which 



22 

liberal culture finds its true expression. Neverthe- 
less the fact remains that for most minds a very re- 
stricted field of study implies narrow thinking and 
narrow acting. 

In the fourth place no breadth of knowledge will 
save any man from narrowness of thought and action 
if that knowledge is held and fostered in a commer- 
cial or selfish spirit. Liberal culture seeks knowledge 
for its own sake and for man's welfare, and not for 
the gold it may bring or the reputation it may entail. 
We are intelligent witnesses of the sublimity of crea- 
tion, and members one of another ; and the noblest 
attitude of man is to worship and to serve ; and no 
culture is truly liberal which does not lead the mind 
into this posture toward knowledge and. toward 
mankind. 

In the last place, and as a necessary inference from 
what has just been said, liberal culture does not de- 
pend on the nature of the study which may engage 
the student's attention or suit his tastes. Provided 
only narrowness of view is avoided, all studies, if 
pursued in the right spirit, are good. All questions 
as to the relative value of classics, mathematics, or 
science are idle and unworthy of the attention which 
a miserable jealousy has given to them. All are alike 
good if studied in the true spirit, and all are equally 



23 

bad if followed solely for commercial aims and per- 
sonal aggrandizement. A noble queen of England, 
about to brave with her husband the dangers of the 
Last Crusade, once said to her anxious attendants : 
" The way to heaven is as easy through Palestine as 
through England or through my own native land ; " 
and liberal culture can be attained as surely through 
one realm of Nature as another. 

If, then, liberal culture is not to be secured by 
wealth, by skill, or even by learning alone, and if it 
is not the privilege of any one school or province, 
how is it to be gained ? I have already virtually told 
you, and I have only to repeat : Liberal culture can 
only be acquired by the pursuit of knowledge for the 
truth's sake and for the amelioration of mankind. To 
honor truth, to redress human wrongs, — let these be 
your aims, and the noble end will be secure. 

Yours is a great privilege. To spend the most 
formative period of life in the pursuit of knowledge 
for knowledge's sake, shielded from the responsibili- 
ties of a toiling world, is, I venture to say, the great- 
est privilege that can be conferred on earth. Great 
monarchs have renounced sovereignty to seek in vain 
in the cloister the privilege which has come to most 
of you as a birthright. Use, I entreat you, this pre- 
cious gift thoughtfully and advisedly. This college 



24 

places on you the final responsibility of the selection 
of your studies. Make this selection with the best 
judgment and advice you can command. Of course 
even when aided by the best advisers you are liable 
to mistakes ; for in this world there is nothing more 
difficult than to give unprejudiced advice, and he 
would not be an enthusiastic teacher who did not 
honestly exaggerate the importance of his own favor- 
ite study. But mistakes in your choice are not irre- 
mediable ; and, as I have said, all studies pursued in 
the right spirit are alike good, even if the choice may 
not have been the best possible for the individual. 
But, whatever may befall, if you take for your guid- 
ing motives truth and service, you must come out 
right in the end. 

There are, however, two dangers incident to our 
college system of which in the interest of liberal 
culture I would forewarn you. 

In the first place, there is a tendency to specializa- 
tion which should be guarded against. In an elective 
system it is natural that men should select studies 
which they can easily master, or which are congenial 
with their tastes, and within certain limitations such a 
selection is wise ; but it will not secure liberal culture 
if it excludes any of the great fundamental branches 
of human knowledge. Moreover, specialization is al- 



25 

most necessary to high scholarship in any department 
of knowledge ; but unless it is based on a broad cul- 
ture already gained it may be questioned whether the 
scholarship is worth the cost. In my judgment such 
special attainment had better be reserved for a gradu- 
ate course of study. During your undergraduate life 
you have an invaluable opportunity of gaining a gen- 
eral survey of the whole field of human knowledge, — 
an opportunity which in all probability will never 
come again. Do what you can toward high scholar- 
ship, but do not neglect this golden opportunity of 
widening your knowledge. Of course the field of 
knowledge is now so broad that it is impossible for 
any student to explore the whole ; but he can gain a 
general view of the field, and no man can be regarded 
as liberally educated who does not know something of 
the literature and history of his race, as well as some- 
thing of the wonders of the creation of which he is a 
part. This broad culture is to be gained not so much 
by the study of books or by attending special courses, 
as by availing yourselves of the numerous opportuni- 
ties for general culture which the University offers, and 
also by the discussion among yourselves of the various 
topics which your studies suggest. 

And here I would add a few words on the value of 
college associations, because I feel that they are a 



26 

more important element of liberal culture than those 
who are occupied with the details of instruction are 
wont to recognize. I regard such an institution as 
this of more value as offering a favorable field for 
growth in manhood than because it furnishes instruc- 
tion in all departments of human learning. Four 
years of quiet continuous study before the mind is 
preoccupied and harassed by the duties and anxieties 
of the world, amidst surroundings favorable to the 
growth of lofty sentiments and noble resolves, have, in 
my opinion, more influence on character than any 
scholarship however profound or any accomplishments 
however brilliant. The silent influence of quiet study, 
with the meditation which lofty associations have 
evoked, has done more to educate the great men of 
the race than all the learning of the schools. 

I shall never forget the impression produced by the 
daily prayers chanted under the lofty cathedral arches 
of an almost deserted English town, where only the 
prescribed two or three were gathered together ; and 
in the uplifting of the soul under those solemn associ- 
ations the conviction was forced upon me that a large 
part of what is noblest and most potent in English 
thought was nurtured under just such influences as 
those services created, but whose cost in money the 
utilitarianism of the present day would grudge. It is 



27 

true there are no precisely similar associations in our 
new country ; but the Greatest Prophet the world 
has known nurtured his inspiration in a nobler temple, 
which stands ever open to all of us, whose pavement 
may be a wilderness, but whose dome is spangled 
with the everlasting stars. 

Do not think that I value scholarship any the less 
because I dwell on the importance of the associations 
and companionships which you will find here. I do 
not forget that it is scholarship which more or less di- 
rectly produces the influences and gives to the associ- 
ations their value. Nor do I forget that scholarship 
is of inestimable worth to the community, and that 
this great acquisition a university is bound to foster 
and enlarge. Still, conspicuous scholarship or ac- 
complishments are the privilege of only a few, while 
noble character may be acquired by all those who 
meet in these halls. 

I am also well aware that college is a field where 
the enemy may sow tares, and that here, as elsewhere 
in human society, the wheat and the tares must grow 
together until the harvest. The most that those en- 
trusted with the care of the College can do is to see 
that the tares do not choke the wheat. The opportu- 
nities are for you to choose. The harvest is for you 
to secure. There can be no manhood without choice. 
There can be no virtue without the possibility of evil. 



28 

It is because I am persuaded that college associa- 
tion and companionship, inducing as they constantly 
do the long-continued and frequent discussion of great 
themes, are such essential conditions of liberal culture 
that I look with great concern on any movement that 
aims to shorten the term of college residence, and feel 
that the time devoted to this formative period of life in 
our American colleges is none too long. It is for 
this reason that I attach so great importance to a 
prolonged residence as a necessary condition of that 
recognition which the College gives by its first degree 
in arts ; and in comparison with this fundamental 
condition the number of courses studied, or the pre- 
cise grade of minimum scholarship accepted, seems to 
me of small account. 

College associations and companionships are the 
only basis of what we call " class feeling," and al- 
though this sentiment has been often perverted, it is 
the strongest evidence of the value of the phase of 
college life of which I have been speaking. I well 
know how artificial college public opinion is, and that 
it often countenances practices and conversation which 
are unworthy of a Christian gentleman. Still I also 
know that beneath the exuberance of youthful folly 
there is frequently concealed a noble enthusiasm ; 
and the survival of this sentiment through all the 
vicissitudes of life most markedly indicates how great 



29 

must have been the influence of the college course, 
apart from all the learning acquired, in moulding 
character and swaying motives. 

In this connection a few words about college ath- 
letics will not be out of place, since there is no field of 
college activity in which the evil of specialization is so 
dominant at the present time. The great importance 
of physical culture in any system of education, and 
the inestimable value of " mens sana in corpore sano " 
are admitted by all ; but here, as elsewhere, moderation 
is the only safe course ; and, for most men at least, 
an essential condition of healthy intellectual growth. 
The fallacy that exhausting muscular work is compat- 
ible with a high degree of mental activity need only 
be stated to meet its own refutation ; and it is not ne- 
cessary to appeal to the law of conservation of energy 
to show the absurdity of the proposition. The few 
examples of distinguished athletes who have been good 
scholars are not safe guides for ordinary men, who 
have only a limited supply of nervous energy, and 
will have none left for brain work if they exhaust 
their whole stock in bodily exercise. Moreover, indis- 
cretion in this direction may entail the most serious 
consequences. 

Unfortunately there are few children of families 
that have enjoyed affluence through several genera- 



30 

tions who have not inherited some bodily weakness 
The vital membranes may be strong enough to bear 
all necessary work during the full term of a useful life, 
but will yield if subjected to excessive strain. Such 
latent weakness may be compatible with a large 
amount of bodily vigor and full muscular develop- 
ment, and may pass unnoticed until the fatal strain 
comes. The medical statistics which have been gath- 
ered in relation to the Oxford and Cambridge racing 
crews show a frightful mortality from heart disease; 
and although I know of no similar statistics in regard 
to our own men, yet the number of cases of the same 
disease resulting from overstrain that have come to 
our knowledge here is sufficient to excite the utmost 
alarm. It is the duty of those who hold the control to 
keep athletic contests far within the limits of the en- 
durance of the men engaged. Strength and skill can 
be shown as effectually on a short course as on a long- 
one ; and there can be no question that athletic con- 
tests which turn chiefly on endurance are a more dan- 
gerous battle-field than most military engagements, 
and the wounds inflicted are none the less to be 
dreaded because so rarely immediately fatal. Cer- 
tainly take all due care of the body as the shrine of 
the soul ; but keep under the body and bring it into 
subjection, and suffer not the corruptible flesh to 



31 

deaden the ever-living spirit within. Better, far bet- 
ter, the extreme folly of the anchorite than spiritual 
death ! 

Besides the danger of specialization, our system is 
open to another danger, against which you should 
also be on your guard. There is a tendency to give 
an industrial and technical tone to some of our courses 
of study. The commercial spirit of the age presses 
upon us from every side. Our students, so far from 
being contented to seek truth for truth's sake, demand 
more and more courses which have a direct bearing on 
practical life, and value only such knowledge as can 
be sold in the market. They care very little for 
chemistry as a part of the grand scheme of Nature, and 
seek solely a knowledge of chemical processes which 
may help them to gain a situation in a dye-shop or an 
iron foundry. They think it a waste of time to study 
crystallography, although only thus can they gain 
any conception of the structure of the minerals and 
rocks of the globe ; but they all seek to be taught 
how to recognize and assay metallic ores. This ten- 
dency, if allowed free play, would convert our Col- 
lege into an industrial school, and is a more dangerous 
foe of liberal culture than the evil first mentioned, be- 
cause more insidious. It ought to be resisted at every 
point. 



32 

I say this although knowing very well that a large 
number of those whom I address have their eareers to 
achieve, that college must be a preparation for active 
life, and that already the res angustce domi may be 
pressing heavily on many hearts. Still, I feel most 
strongly that our colleges should be reserved sacredly 
for the cultivation of the liberal arts. They have an 
utterly different mission from technical schools ; and 
this mission is incompatible with the commercial 
spirit. Moreover the college has a duty to the com- 
munity ; and liberal culture is a virtue which elevates 
the State ; and this ennobling grace the college was 
founded to cherish and to foster. Finally, the techni- 
cal schools are always open, and furnish the industrial 
education which so many demand. 

But why make so much of liberal culture ? Simply 
because it is the great safeguard of our civilization, 
and the only hope of future progress. Our present 
civilization, based on the right of the strongest and on 
the law of supply and demand, will certainly be over- 
whelmed unless a higher authority than the commer- 
cial spirit can be enthroned. Such an authority 
exists, and has spoken, — "Man shall not live by 
bread alone." There is a nobler life than that, — the 
only life from which you can look back without re- 
morse, or to which you can look forward with hope. 



33 

Truth for truth's sake and self-sacrifice for man's 
sake are the only authorities which the coming ages 
will respect. 

You, my young friends, have come to college with 
aims and hopes for something higher than a mere 
material existence. There is no period of our life 
when those aspirations are so pure as in youth. Strive 
to make them realities, and seek for wisdom and for 
knowledge as for hidden treasure ; but seek them for 
their own sake, and not with any mercenary aims, 
lest the pure gold turn to dross in your hands. Trust 
no croakers who tell you that those aspirations are 
illusions which a little contact with the world will dis- 
pel. Be true to them, and they will ennoble your 
life, — they will irradiate the humblest occupation ; 
they will lighten the burdens you must bear ; they will 
temper the griefs that must surely come. The way 
divides before you to-day as it has divided the long- 
procession of men from the beginning. You have no 
question which is the road to the nobler destiny, your 
hearts can be trusted for that ; and let an elder 
brother assure you that your largest usefulness, your 
greatest satisfaction, as well as your highest good, 
will be found by following the road on which truth 
and service are the faithful guides. 



